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I am still on my first playthrough, but its over 190 hours. Mainly a thief with a very slippery tongue, so I can talk my way out of everything I do. I did the thieves quests straight away as I really liked the quest line.

You should play what feels is the most fun to you. I made a thief because I like stealing things and being a nusiance , also I love talking my way out of things. So really choose what appeals to you, illusion archer is pretty cool idea.

Agreed, play what is fun... and I have to admit some days I tend to spend more time designing a character or tinkering with mods than I actually *playing*. I'm bad about that (in MMOs especially... I spent a lot of hours seeing what the extensive housing in EQ2 could be made to do).

Most perks will be in the stealth category. I wanna add some perks to one handed so that stealth attacks with daggers do more damage. Perks in the first one handed perk set will allow for deadlier stealth attacks with daggers, right?

Most perks will be in the stealth category. I wanna add some perks to one handed so that stealth attacks with daggers do more damage. Perks in the first one handed perk set will allow for deadlier stealth attacks with daggers, right?

No... one-handed perks only apply when you're out of stealth. When in stealth - only then do the stealth perks apply and NOT the 1h perks. Its rather confusing and there's a lot of grumbling over it being an awkward design.

I just go ahead and spend some perks in 1H because once you attack, you're generally now out of stealth and may have to fight normally. But I'll dual wield daggers or a dagger +sword-in-left-hand.

Here's a more detailed answer that I found:

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Daggers are indeed faster, although I can't find a reference on how much faster. Everything (enchantments, perks, etc.) considered, I don't think there is a huge difference, so it should come down more to style.Perks
The sword'sBackstab: 6x sneak attack damage with a one-handed weaponBladesman: 10/15/20% chance of doing critical damage with a sword (3 ranks)
vs the dagger'sAssassin's Blade: 15x sneak attack damage with a dagger
and both haveArmsman: +20/40/60/80/100% damage with a one-handed weapon
So there's a difference here, in that the perks favor different playing styles: daggers benefit from stealth and swords benefit from more all-purpose combat. If you're dual-wielding a dagger and sword, that shouldn't really matter as you can sneak attack with the dagger and follow up with both.Speed
As you get better weapons, the damage difference as a percentage falls. For example, an Iron Sword deals 7 base damage vs an Iron Dagger's 4, which is 75% stronger. A Daedric Sword deals 14 vs the Dagger's 11, so only 27% more. Smithed to legendary, it's 24 versus 21, so only 14% difference. I don't know how much the crits from Bladesman add.
Also, because daggers are faster, they will be able to deal out on-hit damage from enchantments more quickly. If you're focusing at all on enchanting, you may want to consider that.An actual sneak attack
In my experience, a standing dual-wielded sneak power attack with two daggers will connect and get the sneak bonus on the first two and maybe more (most enemies are dead by then). I can't tell whether that's up to 60x normal damage (15x from Assassin's Blade, 2x from Shrouded Gloves, 2x from power attack) or if there's some cap, but suffice it to say that if you planning to be very sneaky, not much will hold up to such an attack with two Daedric Daggers.
On the other hand, daggers do not benefit from several bonuses to swords. That includes Fortify One-Handed, Bladesman, etc. That includes silly things like the Nightingale Gloves.Bottom line
If you don't plan to be seen often, I personally have stuck with daggers. My strategy for dealing with non-sneaking situations is falling back on magic. If you want more damage in face-to-face combat, of course, consider a sword, just keep in mind that the ideal equipment for sneaking is quite different than that for combat.

If I drink an invisibility potion, I know I'll become visible once I attack. However, if I'm invisible and sneak up to an enemy, could I land a stealth attack on them? Or is it a weird design thing where it wouldn't land a stealth attack (perhaps a design choice to make the game not as easy).

I might invest in dual wielding and just carry two daggers around. I won't use one handed weapons much. I'll mostly use the bow. I'll rely on invisibility potions to flee when things get hectic.

If I get 5/5 in the first sneak perk and then put on a fortify sneak necklace and/or ring, will I be even harder to see?

Vanilla swords, not so much.... maybe the elven/glass swords (e.g. Chillrend). Mod swords.... well, I mostly go for appearance For appearances sake, nordic/celtic/roman shortswords, gladius... you can waste half an hour just browsing through the jaysus sword mod.
I rather like these daggers though: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=12503

For me, its a bit of opportunism as I level up and preferred gear may change depending on what I'm going to fight.

Quote:

If I drink an invisibility potion, I know I'll become visible once I attack. However, if I'm invisible and sneak up to an enemy, could I land a stealth attack on them? Or is it a weird design thing where it wouldn't land a stealth attack (perhaps a design choice to make the game not as easy).

Vanilla sword? If you are after the best power-to-weight ratio, the best is actually the Nordic Hero sword, available for crafting at the Skyforge after you finished the Companions quest line. The NH sword is as light as iron sword but has the power of an Elven sword.
Before you finish the Companion quests, the Skyforge Steel sword you can get for free is almost just as good.

On that note, the Wolf Armour is the lightest heavy armour in the game. In short, the Companions quests offer both the best weapons and armour if you care about saving weight.

I'm going to enchant different boots with muffle. It is just too good to pass up. I'll check out the sky forge steel sword. How do I get it? Just make a steel sword at sky forge? I'll probably go after a sword from the Jaysus mod later in the game.

I'm going to enchant different boots with muffle. It is just too good to pass up. I'll check out the sky forge steel sword. How do I get it? Just make a steel sword at sky forge? I'll probably go after a sword from the Jaysus mod later in the game.

You get a Skyforge Steel weapon of your choice for free after you officially joined the Companions, and can buy more of them from Eorlund , but you can't make them yourself.

And the Nordic Hero Sword is obtained by re-forging an Ancient Nord Sword you get from enemies. You can only reforge at the Skyforge after you finished all the main Companion quests completely.

Does anyone know how to install the game outside of program files? I don't think the installation gives me a choice of where to install the game. But someone said to install it outside of program files to avoid UAC problems.

Steam will install games where ever you have defined it to. All steam games will land in the same games folder. For example, my skyrim is installed in d:\steam\steamapps\common\skyrim since I set up my Steam on that drive.

Does anyone know how to install the game outside of program files? I don't think the installation gives me a choice of where to install the game. But someone said to install it outside of program files to avoid UAC problems.

Have a read of this Steam Support article.
In short, you'll have to move your Steam installation as well, but it's a fairly painless process.
Whilst the article states to delete everything except Steam.exe and the SteamApps folder, as a personal recommendation, it's probably best not to delete the userdata folder as well.

__________________

"Make sure you do a good job with your life's blueprint." - Kanna Makino

Does anyone know how to install the game outside of program files? I don't think the installation gives me a choice of where to install the game. But someone said to install it outside of program files to avoid UAC problems.

Move your Steam account out of Program Files. Though, to be fair, the default install path on today's most recent Windows operating systems should be Program Files (x86) and not the regular Program Files folder.

Heh... console gaming makes me crazy (in a bad way, I hate it) but that's mostly a controller issue, I'd actually consider a console that came designed with a keyboard and mouse.

I'm going to be mostly gone for a week so everyone have fun. I tried the "War Chief gear" mod on my redesigned petite Lydia ... the stats are good for her but frankly I think it just looks damned cute on her small frame. Zephyr is doing another variation on her "Sahara Coastal Pirate" routine for now (combination of Khantu gear and Dark Wind mods with the I'hara 2hander).

Spoiler for Lydia's new war gear...:

edit (didn't see Urzu 7's question at first):

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When you back up your Skyrim folder (the whole folder, right?) for when installing new mods, do I just copy/paste the entire folder?

Yeah, I just copy the whole "skyrim" folder into a safe spot. After that I install the new mod. If it blows up irrevocably or whatever - then all I have to do is delete the broken skyrim folder and copy the backup folder back in. I turn off my Nexus Mod Manager while I'm deleting and copying (mostly for hazy paranoid reasons). When I restart the NMM, it reflects the proper situation then.

I should note I'm also using the TES V Savegame Manager 1.1 mod to help manage and backup the save-games for the different characters.

Heh... console gaming makes me crazy (in a bad way, I hate it) but that's mostly a controller issue, I'd actually consider a console that came designed with a keyboard and mouse.

With you there buddy.

Urza, you should of thought about where you installed steam , but steam is a very awkard program for not letting you choose where to install game files. Also its not just about the mods on the PC version, I got the game on the PC because the graphics create a much more immersive game and the controlls are so much easier, hotkeys and sorting inventory.

Paralysis On Hit is nice in theory. But the small chance of the corpse glitching and causing the body to become unlootable is now annoying me too much. I now have a warhammer that have a fire and ice enchantment instead. No one would be immune to both at the same time, and I have my lightning spells as backup.

Paralysis On Hit is nice in theory. But the small chance of the corpse glitching and causing the body to become unlootable is now annoying me too much. I now have a warhammer that have a fire and ice enchantment instead. No one would be immune to both at the same time, and I have my lightning spells as backup.

In the end, TES is about having fun while avoiding glitches.

Ah....*that's* what happened. Its only happened once but it had me scratching my head. I one hit crit para killed a random Nord that picked a fight with me and suddenly he was part of the background and unselectable. And yes, slowing them down and setting them on fire has more satisfaction...